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<h1><a name="C27"></a>Chapter 27: <a name="i0"></a>Unequal</h1>
<p>
You have a square grid; each square may contain a digit from 1 to the size of the grid, and some squares have clue signs between them. Your aim is to fully populate the grid with numbers such that:
</p>
<ul><li>
Each row contains only one occurrence of each digit
</li>
<li>
Each column contains only one occurrence of each digit
</li>
<li>
All the clue signs are satisfied.
</li>
</ul>
<p>
There are two modes for this game, &#8216;Unequal&#8217; and &#8216;Adjacent&#8217;.
</p>
<p>
In &#8216;Unequal&#8217; mode, the clue signs are greater-than symbols indicating one square's value is greater than its neighbour's. In this mode not all clues may be visible, particularly at higher difficulty levels.
</p>
<p>
In &#8216;Adjacent&#8217; mode, the clue signs are bars indicating one square's value is numerically adjacent (i.e. one higher or one lower) than its neighbour. In this mode all clues are always visible: absence of a bar thus means that a square's value is definitely not numerically adjacent to that neighbour's.
</p>
<p>
In &#8216;Trivial&#8217; difficulty level (available via the &#8216;Custom&#8217; game type selector), there are no greater-than signs in &#8216;Unequal&#8217; mode; the puzzle is to solve the <a name="i1"></a>Latin square only.
</p>
<p>
At the time of writing, the &#8216;Unequal&#8217; mode of this puzzle is appearing in the Guardian weekly under the name &#8216;<a name="i2"></a>Futoshiki&#8217;.
</p>
<p>
Unequal was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
</p>
<h2><a name="S27.1"></a>27.1 <a name="i3"></a>Unequal controls</h2>
<p>
Unequal shares much of its control system with Solo.
</p>
<p>
To play Unequal, simply click the mouse in any empty square and then type a digit or letter on the keyboard to fill that square. If you make a mistake, click the mouse in the incorrect square and press Space to clear it again (or use the Undo feature).
</p>
<p>
If you <em>right</em>-click in a square and then type a number, that number will be entered in the square as a &#8216;pencil mark&#8217;. You can have pencil marks for multiple numbers in the same square. Squares containing filled-in numbers cannot also contain pencil marks.
</p>
<p>
The game pays no attention to pencil marks, so exactly what you use them for is up to you: you can use them as reminders that a particular square needs to be re-examined once you know more about a particular number, or you can use them as lists of the possible numbers in a given square, or anything else you feel like.
</p>
<p>
To erase a single pencil mark, right-click in the square and type the same number again.
</p>
<p>
All pencil marks in a square are erased when you left-click and type a number, or when you left-click and press space. Right-clicking and pressing space will also erase pencil marks.
</p>
<p>
As for Solo, the cursor keys can be used in conjunction with the digit keys to set numbers or pencil marks. You can also use the 'M' key to auto-fill every numeric hint, ready for removal as required, or the 'H' key to do the same but also to remove all obvious hints.
</p>
<p>
Alternatively, use the cursor keys to move the mark around the grid. Pressing the return key toggles the mark (from a normal mark to a pencil mark), and typing a number in is entered in the square in the appropriate way; typing in a 0 or using the space bar will clear a filled square.
</p>
<p>
(All the actions described in <a href="common.html#S2.2">section 2.2</a> are also available.)
</p>
<h2><a name="S27.2"></a>27.2 <a name="i4"></a>Unequal parameters</h2>
<p>
These parameters are available from the &#8216;Custom...&#8217; option on the &#8216;Type&#8217; menu.
</p>
<dl><dt>
<em>Mode</em>
</dt>
<dd>
Mode of the puzzle (&#8216;Unequal&#8217; or &#8216;Adjacent&#8217;)
</dd>
<dt>
<em>Size (s*s)</em>
</dt>
<dd>
Size of grid.
</dd>
<dt>
<em>Difficulty</em>
</dt>
<dd>
Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle. At Trivial level, there are no greater-than signs; the puzzle is to solve the Latin square only. At Recursive level (only available via the &#8216;Custom&#8217; game type selector) backtracking will be required, but the solution should still be unique. The levels in between require increasingly complex reasoning to avoid having to backtrack.
</dd>
</dl>

<hr><address>
[Puzzles S60 version 1.4.r8997]</address></body>
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